31st January 2019 was an important day for Dr. Rajan Mahtani as on this day, the final announcement on Portland Cement Zambia was made. Dr. Rajan Mahtani had approached the Court of Appeal after the Lusaka High Court failed to provide judgment for the cement factory which was lying at the Court for more than ten years. The judgement at the Lusaka High Court was given by Justice Nkonde and he announced that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. Since this judgement was extremely controversial, Dr. Rajan Mahtani then approached the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal made the final announcement on 31st January 2019 and Justice Mwinde was the judge giving the announcement.
According to the judgement given by Justice Mwinde, Finsbury Investments is the majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares and Ital Terrazzo Limited is the minority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with only 42 percent shares. Finsbury Investments is a company owned by Dr. Rajan Mahtani and Ital Terrazzo Limited is a company owned by the Ventriglias. Based on this shareholder pattern, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is the legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory.
Furthermore, justice Mwinde made some revelations while giving this judgement. According to these revelations, justice Nkonde from the Lusaka High Court was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as the only shareholders of Zambezi Portland Cement without any proof or evidence. Furthermore, the Court of Appeal judge also discarded all forgery related allegations by considering the fact that the process of mechanically placing signatures is common across Zambezi Portland Cement factory and even critical member of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory, Claudio Ventriglia, engaged in similar practice. As such, forgery related allegations were discarded. The Court of Appeal judge also provided a timeline of three months from the date of the judgement during which all parties are required to complete the share regularization process.
